The new 3D map system. You'll be able to play the original Dissidia's story in this form too.

For its final issue of the year, Famitsu has another big look at Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantasy, along with an interview with producer Tetsuya Nomura and planning director Mitsunori Takahashi.

The two shared a few new details on the recently announced Laguna character. The FFVIII hero was actually supposed to have appeared in Kingom Heats Birth by Sleep, Nomura revealed. They'd even partially prepared a scenario where Laguna appears as the head of Mirage Arena. In the end, they decided that if they were to have a new character from FFVIII in Duodecim it would end up being Laguna, so they left him out of BbS.

One of the big surprises from the game's recent Jump Festa trailer was mention of a PSP hardware bundle. Square Enix has yet to provide a look at the special PSP system, but Nomura revealed to the magazine that it will have a Yoshitaka Amano illustration showing Chaos and Cosmos. The system will be pearl white, with the side frame being matte black.

More characters are on the way for the game. While there was no mention of the Jump trailer's hints at Yuna, Nomura said that the remaining character reveals will all come from the Final Fantasy games that were released on the Super Famicom/SNES and beyond.

Returning characters are seeing lots of changes. Among these, Final Fantasy VI's Kefka and Final Fantasy XI's Shantotto are seeing a considerable amount of work.

The past characters aren't all that's returning for Duodecim. Nomura revealed that the original's story will also be included. Once you clear Duodecim's story, you'll be able to unlock this. It's being fully remade to go along with Duodecim's new story mode, which is based off a 3D map system. The plot is the same, but you'll find more 2D events allowing you to explore the story deeper.

With two full stories, it may seem like Duodecim is going to offer a lot of play time. This is the case. Takahashi said to expect 15 hours of play time for Duodecim's story. Add in the original's story, and the total shoots up to 60 hours.

Getting ll that content to fit on a single UMD is apparently a tough task. Takahashi noted that the game has more summons and multiple times the battle music of the original. Takahashi also hinted that the Colosseum mode has become something very impressive. The programmers worked hard to make it all fit.

Regarding the 3D world map system, this is actually something that they'd wanted to include with the original Dissidia, Nomura said. By the time he'd given the order for the map system, they'd already completed the game's board-bast progression system, so they left it out.

The board-based system from the original Dissidia is still in Duodecim. Here, it takes the form of dungeons. Rather than having pieces moving like in the original Dissidia, the new system has improved tempo. Takahashi did not share specifics behind this.

We should be hearing more about Duodecim shortly. Nomura promised a surprise for the game at the January 18th 1st Production Department Premier event.